There's no simple answer to the workplace-during-a-pandemic conundrum, but there are many ways that organisations can fine-tune their workplaces to appeal to the inevitably changed habits and expectations of their people while meeting their own objectives. From following the data and ensuring your business goals are rock-solid to ongoing testing and refining while nailing the office basics, our 2021 Workplace Futures Survey of 2300 office workers unearthed some important insights for the evolution of the workplace. In this episode of Hassell Talks, Principal Catherine van der Heide and Senior Researcher Daniel Davis explore the survey findings and what they mean. They also speak with people in the business of creating workplaces for the future, Letitia Hope from ISPT and ARUP's Cameron McIntosh.

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Workplaces for the nuanced, future user

Mental health is making headlines - including in the architecture and design industry as the cumulative effects of living and working through a second year of the global Covid-19 pandemic start to become known. So how can organisations, the industry, and individuals, take advantage of this moment to establish change and in doing so, protect the longevity and diversity of the design industry into the future? In this special episode of Hassell Talks to recognise RUOK Day and World Mental Health Day we invited Parlour co-founder, Researcher and Professor of Architecture at Monash University Naomi Stead to share some of the early observations coming out of a survey of 2300 industry professionals into wellbeing in architecture. Joining Naomi is landscape architect, Place Intelligence co-founder and Human Potential Coach Bonnie Shaw, who explains how her own extreme experience with stress and pursuit of mental wellbeing marries data, endocrinology, neuroscience and behavioural psychology to support change, and community resilience. Together with Managing Director Steve Coster they explore opportunities to promote an open help-seeking culture, foster wellbeing and create real, positive change around mental health for the benefit of individuals, organisations, clients – and ultimately the communities and end users of design. "Designers are motivated by a desire to make the world a better place, and so they keep designing until they get to the best possible outcome beyond the point where they're really pushing their own personal well-being." - Naomi Stead "When you're working in really big, challenging adaptive problems, it puts so much pressure on people. And being able to do that work in a context where it's okay to talk about how you might be struggling or when you might be having problems, I think, is the only way we get through it."  - Bonnie Shaw Hassell is a proud partner of mental health advocacy organisation, PukaUp. Find out more about the work PukaUp is doing to eliminate suicide. References and further resources The British Architects Mental Wellbeing Forum Toolkit The Australian Architects Mental Wellbeing Forum Toolkit Literature review on Architects and Mental Health commissioned by the NSWARB Monash University's Wellbeing in Architecture survey Bonnie Shaw: 'Making good decisions' - Dumbo Feather Founder of Stress Theory, Hans Selye

Burnt Out? Mental health in design

Finding it both necessary and convenient, patients and clinicians across Australia embraced the change brought about by COVID-19 and took to telehealth in huge numbers – jumping from one million service events in March 2020 to six million a month later in April. Healthcare is traditionally an area that can be slow to change, so this leap in uptake was a novel event in itself. Under pandemic restrictions, clinicians didn’t have much of a choice. But the switch to telehealth wasn’t as simple as just turning on a computer or making a call, particularly in hospital settings where space and infrastructure are hard to come by. We wanted to find out what the telehealth experiences of healthcare workers in Australian hospitals was like during 2020, and the implications for the spaces we design. In collaboration with The University of Queensland’s Centre for Online Health, we discovered that hospital infrastructure in Australia is ill-equipped to accommodate the spaces needed for successful delivery of telehealth services during a pandemic. And with telehealth here to stay, that means these spaces are also left wanting in a future that is almost certain to include a greater mix of both in-person and telehealth consultations. For episode 3 in season 2 of Hassell Talks, Senior Researcher Michaela Sheahan looks at what this means for the way new hospitals are designed or existing hospitals are reconfigured – and the almost once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rethink the way healthcare is offered. She’s joined by Hassell Principal Leanne Guy as well as Karen Lucas, Senior Telehealth Coordinator for Metro South Hospital and Health Service and Dr Emma Thomas, Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Services Research, The University of Queensland.

S2 | Ep3 A shot in the arm: How COVID-19 transformed telehealth and hospital design

At the heart of any co-working environment is the idea that it can do much more than provide a hotspot and a hot coffee. The best ones ask: Can we build a great like-minded community? In the COVID-19 context, the best co-working spaces then ask whether they can solve some of the challenges thrown up by the pandemic to design for safety and trust in a physical environment. And right now? They’re asking how the design of their spaces helps people to connect – and reconnect. To go a step further and make these connections high value, while supporting wellness and resilience. “You need a place where you can say 'Oh my gosh! That's so good!' You need that energy.” Industry trailblazer, CEO and Founder of The Great Room Jaelle Ang, calls it the quest for a ‘modern agora’. “If we need to move at a fast pace, we need to be in a learning environment,” she observes. “And the office needs to allow you to do that.” Host and Senior Design Strategist Pamela Jouwena joined Jaelle Ang at the Great Room, Raffles for a conversation exploring the evolution of coworking to meaningfully connect the virtual and physical experiences – and how it’s gone beyond simply providing flexibility to being places of resilience that people can trust, where they can create community and focus on holistic wellness. At a time when it’s needed most.

Connection, trust and safety: co-working and COVID-19

We're back for Season Two of Hassell Talks - thanks for joining us! Once practically unthinkable, silent city centres were a feature of 2020. And to attract people back as the COVID-19 recovery picks up pace across the globe, the challenge lies in truly understanding how and why spaces work. The solution might be staring us – city shapers and designers – in the face. Big Data. What exactly can big data reveal to city shapers and designers that they previously never had access to? What does it tell us about human behaviour in urban places and the opportunities to create better outcomes for stakeholders? And how does it help designers prove their effectiveness of their designs? With Big Data as a basis, designers and clients can have more informed and meaningful conversations to help generate socially, culturally and economically valuable outcomes. Hassell's Gerard Corcoran teams up with Norion Ubechel from Place Intelligence to dig into the role of Big Data and how it can challenge and validate the design process.

Season 2 | Episode 1: How big data can challenge - and validate - the design process

Whether you’re a CEO, a property manager or a workplace designer, the office has been the headline conversation of 2020. How many will go back? What will it look like? How will workplace culture change? It’s a topic we’ve been examining closely, in everything from our Workplace Beyond 2020 survey to one of our latest podcasts – a ‘Creative Conversation’ on the future of corporate campuses. Whatever line of inquiry we’re following, we know a mix of qualitative and quantitative insights give us the greatest handle on what’s happening in a workplace. Data really does make the difference to our design process. For this episode of Hassell Talks, our design strategy lead and Principal Evodia Alaterou is joined by Alex Birch, co-founder and CEO of tech start-up XY Sense. Using sensors positioned within a workplace, their company gets real-time information on how employees move throughout their space and use their work settings – not to mention a better understanding of what makes a safe working environment post-COVID. Evodia and Alex share what they’ve learned gathering data from four workplace and employee experience leaders in Australia. And we get to hear directly from people inside those businesses too. Cameron McIntosh from Arup, Madeline Mios from Culture Amp, Mark Comer from Cbus and Adam Fitzhenry from Sunsuper talk about the challenges their organisations faced – and how those made them re-think the tools they use to understand and measure their workplace performance and their culture.

The role of data in workplace design in the era of COVID19

Whether you’re a CEO, a property manager or a workplace designer, the office has been the headline conversation of 2020. How many will go back? What will it look like? How will workplace culture change? Whatever line of inquiry you follow, we know a mix of qualitative and quantitative insights will give us the greatest handle on what’s happening in a workplace. Evodia Alaterou, our design strategy lead joins Alex Birch, co-founder and CEO of tech start-up XY Sense to discuss what they’ve learned gathering data from four workplace and employee experience leaders in Australia. And we get to hear directly from people inside those businesses too: Cameron McIntosh from Arup, Madeline Mios from Culture Amp, Mark Comer from Cbus and Adam Fitzhenry from Sunsuper all talk about the challenges their organisations faced – and how those made them re-think the tools they use to understand and measure their workplace performance and their culture. It’s a topic we’ve been examining closely, in everything from our Workplace Beyond 2020 survey to one of our latest podcasts – a ‘Creative Conversation’ on the future of corporate campuses. Hassell Talks is brought to you by international design firm Hassell. 

Listen to the full conversation between host Jon Hazelwood, Professor James Hitchmough and internationally acclaimed garden designer Piet Oudolf. Together, they propose a different, less binary way of thinking about natives and non-natives, encouraging us to look at why carefully considered planting needs to be seen at scale, and for people, ecology and wildlife.

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Plants in our cities are important for many reasons, like flooding and urban cooling and biodiversity and human wellbeing and health. But they also have economic impacts that make green cities as attractive to developers and investors as those who just want to stop and smell the roses. Episodes 12 and 13 of Hassell Talks looked at why we value wild, natural planting in our cities as well as the importance of scale, ecology and sustainability when creating landscapes that appear natural and organic. For Episode 14, Principal Jon Hazelwood explores the significance of our emotional connections to nature in cities. He is joined by writer, garden designer and TV presenter Michael McCoy as well as Professor Nigel Dunnett, who is responsible for some of the UK’s most spectacular planted environments like the Barbican, Buckingham Palace's Diamond Garden and the planting designs for the London Olympic park (with his colleague James Hitchmough).

The value of emotional connections to nature

Plants in our cities are important for many reasons, like supporting urban cooling and biodiversity as well as human wellbeing and health. But they also impact on the economies of our cities. Green cities are just as attractive to developers and investors as those who just want to stop and smell the roses. Parts 1 and 2 looked at why we value wild, natural planting in our cities as well as the importance of scale, ecology and sustainability when creating landscapes that appear natural and organic.  In part 3, Jon Hazelwood joins writer, garden designer and TV presenter Michael McCoy as well as Professor Nigel Dunnett, responsible for some of the UK’s most spectacular planted environments to explore the significance of our emotional connections to nature in cities.  Hassell Talks is produced by international design studio, Hassell. 

Naturalistic Planting | Part 3: The value - and significance - of emotional connections to nature in cities

The debate around native or exotic urban planting can sometimes be a thorny one, culturally, environmentally and emotionally. Yet it’s a subject that warrants deeper consideration. The impact of nature on our immediate wellbeing has never been more apparent in our urban places than during lockdown – and over the longer term climate change brings the role of planting and landscape into sharp focus as we consider the future health of our cities. On the other hand, wholly exotic landscapes bring with them issues of culture, context and invasive issues. Perhaps the answer is somewhere in the middle. Carefully controlled “wild” environments like small pocket parks or larger spaces like New York's famous High Line in are vastly different, but non-native plants play a crucial role alongside native species. In this way designers are ensuring biodiversity, eco-systems and cultural aspects are all catered and cared for. Following on from Episode 12 of Hassell Talks, 'Making cities wild again', in this episode host Jon Hazelwood brings together Professor James Hitchmough and internationally acclaimed garden designer Piet Oudolf to propose a different, less binary way of thinking about natives and non-natives. Together they look at why carefully considered planting needs to be seen at scale, and for people, ecology and wildlife.

Is 'native' the only answer to the biodiversity question?

The debate around native or exotic urban planting can sometimes be a thorny one, culturally, environmentally and emotionally and over the longer term, climate change brings the role of planting and landscape into sharp focus as we consider the future health of our cities. Wholly exotic landscapes bring with them issues of culture, context and invasive issues. Perhaps the answer is somewhere in the middle. Carefully controlled “wild” environments like small pocket parks or larger spaces like New York's famous High Line in are vastly different, but non-native plants play a crucial role alongside native species. In this way designers are ensuring biodiversity, eco-systems and cultural aspects are all catered and cared for. Jon Hazelwood joins Professor James Hitchmough and internationally acclaimed garden designer Piet Oudolf to propose a different, less binary way of thinking about natives and non-natives. Together they look at why carefully considered planting needs to be seen at scale, and for people, ecology and wildlife.

Naturalistic Planting | Part 2: Is 'native' the only answer to the biodiversity question?

It might be hard to measure, but we know interacting with nature has an impact on our emotions – and that’s never been more apparent in cities during lockdown. But does the kind of planting we encounter in urban environments matter? Are planned and cultivated spaces what we need, or could we be craving ‘wilder’, less predictable landscapes that fully immerse us in nature? When it was published in 2015, the book Planting in a Post-Wild World challenged conventional ideas about designing green spaces that would flourish in our cities and suburbs – and capture people’s hearts and minds. It made a groundbreaking argument for a hybrid approach of both the wild and the cultivated that continues to gather momentum today. Case in point: The High Line in New York – the poster child for naturalistic planting in a city. No other public space project has had such a powerful influence on design thinking in recent times. In this episode of Hassell Talks, landscape architect Jon Hazelwood talks to Claudia West – director of Phyto studio and co-author of Planting in a Post-Wild World – and Robert Hammond, co-founder and CEO of The High Line, about planting the seeds for a deeper, more fulfilling relationship with nature, whatever the space, scale or budget

Why would we want nature in the city anyway?

It might be hard to measure, but we know interacting with nature has an impact on our emotions – and that’s never been more apparent in cities during lockdown. But does the kind of planting we encounter in urban environments matter? Are planned and cultivated spaces what we need, or could we be craving ‘wilder’, less predictable landscapes that fully immerse us in nature? In Part 1 of a mini-series investigating naturalistic planting in our urban environments, Jon Hazelwood joins Claudia West – director of Phyto studio and co-author of Planting in a Post-Wild World – and Robert Hammond, co-founder and CEO of The High Line, about planting the seeds for a deeper, more fulfilling relationship with nature, whatever the space, scale or budget. Hassell Talks is brought to you by international design studio, Hassell.

Naturalistic Planting | Part 1: What's the value of nature in the city anyway?

Beyond the impeccable dress sense, designers working in fashion and city-making have a lot in common - both sectors can have indisputable impacts on the world - on a very large scale. Right now they also have an opportunity to think more deeply about the impact of their work on people, places and our collective future. While fashion is often fast and seasonal and architectural design is often a longer process, both are responsible for dictating trends and aspirations – and both can generate significant amounts of waste. Our Head of Design Technology and Innovation, Xavier de Kestelier, got together with Christopher Raeburn, Creative Director at Timberland and sustainable fashion brand RÆBURN, to talk about whether technology and similarities in the supply chain can lead to more collaboration between the industries and greater sustainability overall. “There are some cross industry initiatives that we can work towards, along with things like carbon neutrality and travel that now need to be just standard,” says Christopher. “But what can we do over and above that? We should, in the right way, challenge each other."

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